Some say you can never achieve inner peace without forgiveness, which is often correct. Ho’Oponopono teaches forgiveness to help restore self-love and balance. A grudge is like a weighted stone; carrying it underwater will sink you further. And though forgiveness may feel like a sharp sword, it opens your heart toward a weightless future.
Letting go can be challenging, painful, and frustrating. You can use Ho’Oponopono to help navigate through that pain into bright light.
What is Ho’Oponopono?
Ho’Oponopono is a Hawaiian word that, when translated, means “cause things to move back in balance” or “make things right.” In the Hawaiian dialect, “pono” means balance. The chanting of Ho’Oponopono suggests cleansing the body of guilt, shame, haunting memories, ill will, or bad feelings. The chant centers around balance. To achieve balance, things have to be at peace once more. Returning to a peaceful state involves remembering before you were hurt.
How forgiveness works
Forgiveness works when you can accept the pain caused and move on. It rids you of feeling the pain of ill will toward the cause of the pain.
Forgiveness is often hard to grasp since you are often taught that pain is evil and pleasure or happiness is good. If something hurts you, why should you forgive it? This is because you can save your energy and use it on things that matter the most, such as your own growth.
Inner peace happens when you let go of the external factors that have affected you and move on. It doesn’t have to mean resolve; it can also mean acceptance.
Misconception of forgiveness
A common misconception of forgiveness is that things need to be fixed for them to be forgiven. This is only sometimes how the word works.
The world can be harsh to those who are good of heart. A lot of people are rewarded for their callousness toward pain. The key to forgiveness is to accept that something is broken and that it is time to move on. Although this does not bring you back to your original peace before it was broken, this gives you the momentum to look for something else to fill the gap.
Life is about gaining and losing. There are ups and downs; to find one’s balance, it is essential to learn how to navigate the ups and downs. The practice of Ho’Oponopono is about reconciliation. Its mantra can be used to attract balance and solutions to problems. The important thing is to realize that sometimes the solution to our problems is not always fixing what is broken but learning to accept a missing piece.
Self-forgiveness with Ho’Oponopono
It’s easy to blame yourself for misfortune: “I shouldn’t have done this,” or “I shouldn’t have done that.” However, blaming yourself is not healthy. It is essential to acknowledge your mistakes, but blaming yourself for misfortune is entirely different.
Instead of saying: “This bad thing happened to me because I am…,” it is okay to say: “This bad thing happened to me because I did….” It is essential to isolate your actions from your definitions. You did something, which resulted in something. If people say you are what you do, to change who you are, you have to change what you do.
When you chant Ho’Oponopono, you can say to yourself: “I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you….” Chant this over and over again until its message resonates within you.
Effective meditation tactics
The Ho’Oponopono chant can be said out loud or silently in one’s head. It is better to repeat the words “I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you” out loud while you allow your thoughts to mend your brokenness.
The Ho’Oponopono chat can be done at your own pace. It does not have to be a fixed hour, it can be for a few minutes or until you feel better. The goal of the Ho’Oponopono meditation chant is not the number of repetitive chants, but how well you accept the pain, learn to love yourself, and practice gratitude.
Words are powerful. If you’re struggling with forgiveness, practice the joyous chant of Ho’Oponopono.
Accepting the pain is one thing; learning to be grateful despite the pain is another thing.
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